A year ago, newly-elected President Barack Obama dominated the NAACP Image Awards. But this go-round, the movie Precious enjoyed that honor, walking away with a half-dozen trophies in the movie categories, including Best Picture, Director (Lee Daniels), Independent Film, Actress (Gabby Sidibe), Supporting Actress (Mo’Nique) and Screenplay (Geoffrey Fletcher).As for television, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne proved the voters’ favorite, netting four awards.Â

Among the evening’s highlights were an array of gracious acceptance speeches, especially those by Mo’Nique and her teary-eyed co-star Gabby Sidibe, and by their director/producer Lee Daniels who brought down the curtain by continue to speak until the closing credits began to roll. Tyler Perry dedicated his accolade to his late mother who just passed away last December.

Â Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, who’s been wheelchair-bound since the 2001 motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, choked up while expressing how much winning for his work on the comedy series “Brothers” meant to him. Meanwhile, comedian Chris Rock might have gotten off the funniest joke when he feigned presenting an award “for the best light-skinned actress in a mini-series,” especially given that when his own picture, Good Hair, won for Best Documentary, he called it “the blackest movie of all time.”